During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing before the Congressional recess, Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-MD) asked spoke about invasive blue catfish in the Chesapeake Bay.
00:00I now recognize Congresswoman Elfrith for five minutes.
00:04Thank you, Madam Chair and Ranking Member Hoyle for taking up H.R. 4294, the Maws Act, in today's hearing.
00:13The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, with more coastline across its watershed than the entirety of California.
00:20It's a pillar of our local recreation, seafood, and tourist economies.
00:23But like so many ecosystems across the nation, the bay has been invaded, and its keystone species of blue crabs, oysters, and rockfish are being threatened by an invasive aquatic species.
00:34In this case, the invasive blue catfish poses a direct ecological and economic threat to the Chesapeake Bay,
00:41which is why I am today introducing the bipartisan Maws Act, alongside Vice Chairman Whitman,
00:47to address the damage inflicted by the blue catfish, while also strengthening our local seafood industry,
00:53and providing a new source of protein to pets nationwide.
00:57Blue catfish, like so many invasive species, were introduced in the 1970s in Virginia for recreational purposes,
01:03and it was believed that they would simply stay in the freshwater tributaries, and not hop, skip, and jump over to the larger Chesapeake Bay.
01:10Unfortunately, blue catfish are now not only in every tidal area of the bay,
01:16but now they are the most abundant biomass in many of those tributaries.
01:20Furthermore, they have no natural predators in the wild, and the bay, so it's very difficult to control population growth.
01:29They can live up to 20 years and weigh up to 100 pounds.
01:32They eat approximately 10% of their body weight every single day, and have an extremely fast metabolism.
01:38I'm bringing this all up to say, their meals typically consist, as you can see behind me, of blue crabs, rockfish, juvenile oysters.
01:47They are indiscriminate in what they eat every single day, and we're facing significant economic damage to our seafood industry,
01:53which again is central to our local economy in Maryland and Virginia.
01:57In Maryland's portion of the Chesapeake Bay alone, the winter dredge survey found that blue crab populations are at their second lowest number recorded since 1990,
02:06and juvenile crab populations are at its third lowest on record.
02:09This population crisis is being felt by my constituents.
02:13A summer staple, I hope many of you enjoy while you're in town, a bushel of blue crabs that can then be steamed and seasoned with Old Bay,
02:20now costs $400 for a bushel, when just 10 years ago it cost $275.
02:26One clear perpetrator, again, as you can see from the stomach contents of a blue catfish caught actually in Virginia,
02:33you can see is the blue catfish, you can see oysters, blue crab, other fun things all throughout.
02:40But there is some good news, blue catfish is delicious, and it's nutritious, they are high in protein and omega-3s,
02:46and according to a new report from Bay scientists, do not retain PFAS like other fish do.
02:52But because of a federal rule requiring processing for human consumption of these blue catfish under USDA inspection,
02:59while all other fish are processed under FDA inspection, watermen struggle to sell them at a financially sustainable price.
03:06The market has been artificially bogged down by federal regulations, and we simply cannot meet the urgency of this moment.
03:12So apart from ordering blue catfish, please, when you see it on a menu, I'm asking everybody on this committee and folks watching at home, it is delicious.
03:19We are also introducing, again, the Bipartisan Malls Act, Mitigation Action and Watermen Support Act,
03:25which is going to establish a pilot program within NOAA's Chesapeake Bay office to facilitate a new market for Chesapeake Bay blue catfish
03:33into the pet and animal food industry in an effort to take millions of pounds of these harmful fish out of our waterways.
03:39NOAA will administer the grants to pet and animal food manufacturers to ensure watermen are properly incentivized to catch these blue catfish
03:46in the Chesapeake Bay and establish transportation, processing and manufacturing structures for the long-term market.
03:53Throughout the two-year pilot program, NOAA will collect data on the ecological and economic impacts of this program,
04:00on the population of invasive blue catfish and other species in the Bay, the economic impact on watermen,
04:05and the market response and processes from pet and animal food manufacturers.
04:09NOAA will additionally report back to Congress on best practices, lessons learned,
04:14and recommendations for additional species in other watersheds that may benefit from this program.
04:19If this pilot program is successful, it could be a creative policy solution that could also work in other watersheds.
04:26Take Asian carp in the Mississippi or, if the chair were still here, snakeheads in Arkansas.
04:31While we can all do our part to, again, order this blue catfish when you see it on a menu,
04:36it's not a problem that we can simply eat our way out of.
04:39So I'm proud to introduce this first-of-a-kind legislation.
04:41I'm grateful for collaboration of my colleagues, including Representative Whitman, Kiggins, and Hoyer,
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